The Raymond Burr Estate, built in 1923, sits on just under 2 ½ acres of private park-like grounds above Hollywood Boulevard.

The Mediterranean estate is a unique listing to say the least! It’s definitely over the top and filled with a lot of … stuff. The 3-level home has 7,486 square feet of living space; a detached 1,211 square foot recording studio/office; and over 1,412 square feet of warehouse space. There is also a pool, great views, and extensive grounds.

The Staller House, designed by Richard Neutra in 1955, is sited on a gated and private estate in prime Bel Air.

The 6,674 square foot residence was respectfully restored by award winning architect Lorcan O’Herlihy in 2001 and features 4 bedrooms and 7 baths including a spacious master suite and his & hers baths.

There is a 4,200 bottle refrigerated wine tasting room, ample storage space, spectacular city and ocean views, and a gorgeous pool on over an acre lot.

Vidal Sassoon revolutionized hairstyling in the 1960s. His easy-to-maintain, precision cut bobs and geometric shapes modernized women’s hair. Sassoon is credited with inventing the five-point haircut to complement the bone structure of model and Vogue creative director, Grace Coddington. He gave Mia Farrow her famous pixie cut for the 1968 film Rosemary’s Baby, and his most famous cut at the time was the asymmetrical bob or the Nancy Kwan, which he cut for the actress’s role in the 1963 comedy The Wild Affair. “My whole work, beginning in the late 1950s, came from the Bauhaus,” Sassoon explains in April’s Architectural Digest. “It was all about studying the bone structure of the face, to bring out the character. Architects have always been my heroes,” he adds.

With his love of architecture, it makes sense that in 2004 for $6 million, Sassoon and wife Ronnie purchased the iconic Singleton House designed by Richard Neutra. The home was originally commissioned in 1959 by industrialist Henry Singleton for its spectacular Bel Air location atop Mulholland Drive with views of the Pacific, downtown, the desert, and San Gabriel Mountains.

When the couple purchased the Singleton House, it was in disrepair. Just two weeks after closing, part of the roof collapsed, and a few months later a huge chunk of the property slid into the neighbor’s yard. Due to dry rot and modern code requirements, the Sassoons did extensive rebuilding of the home. They worked with contractor Scott Werker of GW Associates of L.A. to replace the damaged ceilings, pour new terrazzo floors, and remove a number of walls to create larger, brighter interior spaces. They also added a master bedroom suite, which Ronnie designed with Werker and building planner Tim Campbell. Ronnie, however, is unapologetic about any changes they made. “Unless the house is a museum, or you only spend a few weeks a year there, you just can’t live this way today. And given how valuable the land is, the house would have been torn down,” she says. (Which is exactly what is potentially happening with Richard Neutra’s 1955 Kronish House in Beverly Hills.)

After the remodel was complete, the couple turned to close friend and decorator Martyn Lawrence-Bullard for advice on the interiors. The kitchen features a Saarinen Tulip table and chairs by Knoll and built-in cabinets by Neutra; the hanging cabinet and stool are by Jean Prouvé.

Left out of the Architectural Digest article, is mention of the fact that the Sassoons have been trying to sell the Singleton House on and off since 2007. (Although, what better advertisement for the home?) They listed the 5+ acre, 4 bedroom, 5 bath residence for $20M in 2007. It was on the market for 471 days and then taken off until February of 2009, when it was re-listed with an asking price of $14.995M. It’s now back off the market.

In 2006, Jon Platt, Tony Award-winning producer of “Angels in America” and “The Book of Mormon” purchased Frank Gehry’s Schnabel House in Brentwood. Platt spent four years remodeling the home, which was originally built in 1989 on a commission from Rockwell Schnabel, former ambassador to Finland and the European Union, and his wife Marna Schnabel, who briefly worked as an architect under Gehry. The Schnabel House is one of Gehry’s last single family residences.

Platt told the Los Angeles Timesthat his mission was to “take this gorgeous piece of art that happens to be a home” and update it with the modern features expected of a residence today–and do it all in a way that pleased Gehry. Platt added at that point he wasn’t ready to sell but, “Never say never.” Five months later the stunning home is on the market.

Built in 1960, this mid-century modern has a quintessential California indoor/outdoor flow with walls of sliding glass doors that open to a spacious deck with incredible views of the canyon and city lights.

The 1,527 square foot residence in Beachwood Canyon was once owned by The Monkees’ keyboardist Peter Tork, who lived there with fellow musician Stephen Stills of Crosby, Stills and Nash.

We are going to Palm Springs for a few days next week, so the desert has been on my mind. These fantastic shots of Steve McQueen and his first wife actress Neile Adams were photographed by LIFE‘s John Dominis over a three-week period in 1963. The photos were taken at their Palm Springs home, designed by William Krisel, built by Alexander Construction Company.

Check out the mosaic Krisel fireplace, which McQueen used for his record player… “Steve is a jazz lover–he takes his portable stereo with him wherever he goes,” Dominis wrote in his notes. There are LPs by Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, and Frank Sinatra and Count Basie scattered at his feet.

McQueen later owned a home in Palm Springs’ Southridge community, where he lived with his second wife, Ali MacGraw. The Southridge house was built in 1968 by Hugh M. Kaptur. It has a steel I-beam structure, gorgeous mountain views, a three-stall carport, and expansive parking area, which was perfect for McQueen, a notorious cars and motorcycle lover. He had two Porsche 911s and six motorcycles on the property, according to a 1971 Sports Illustrated article.

The Southridge house is currently on the market for $3,470,000. If you’d like to see this home or find out more information, email Rob or call him at 323-775-6305!

Jennifer Aniston is selling her Hal Levitt residence in Beverly Hills for $42 million. At least, that’s the asking price! We featured Aniston’s Hall Levitt Remodel last summer. If you recall, she purchased the incredible home for $13.5 million in 2006 and then spent over two and a half years renovating it with the help of designer Stephen Shadley.

The home was built in 1970 and has incredible views of Los Angeles. Aniston told Architectural Digest that it feels “like a hug” and “vibrates with the love that created it.” However, the 9,105 square foot home with six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, and over a half acre of land must be feeling like too big of a hug at this point. Aniston recently toldPeople, “I couldn’t sleep and I sort of had one of those moments where I went, I really need to simplify… and clear out the clutter. And along with that thought came, ‘I should sell my house.’ … I had the realization that this is just too much for me. I’m not this person.”

Well, I’d really love to be the person who owns a 9,105 square foot Hal Levitt in Beverly Hills, but I didn’t star on a hit television show for a decade. Oh well. Some lucky buyer will get the chance to be the home’s new owner. The residence is not officially listed on the MLS and is a pocket listing at this point.

This modern, 3,207 square foot home is located in the heart of Silver Lake and features Reservoir and Mountain views. The residence has high ceilings, a chef’s kitchen, central air/heat, a spacious master suite with a walk-in closet, and French doors that lead to the rear yard. There’s also a huge bonus room/den that can be used as a fifth bedroom.

This was a celebrity-owned home that’s now in foreclosure, which means it’s a great opportunity to buy a large, ultra-private home in prime Silver Lake! If you’d like to see it in person, email me or call me at 323-775-6305.

I’m always learning something new about the incredible architectural history in Silver Lake. I had no idea, for example, that Anaïs Nin lived right on Hildalgo Avenue from 1962 until 1977, when she passed away at age 73. Nin was best known for her many published journals, spanning more than 60 years, including Henry and June about her relationship with writer Henry Miller.

Nin lived in Silver Lake with her husband Rupert Pole (she was also married to her first husband at the time) in a home designed by Pole’s half-brother Eric Lloyd Wright, architect and grandson of Frank Lloyd Wright. The home was Wright’s first solo project, completed in 1962 for $22,000.

In 2006, Wright told Los Angeles Times, “My brother and Anaïs were very much involved in designing this house, from the preliminary plans to the working drawings to getting the contractor. I met with them and heard what their dreams were. Rupert felt that she should have a sense of security, a place that was permanent. I got to know them better by doing their house.”

Wright designed the 1,400-square-foot, one-bedroom house with the couple’s requests in mind. From the living room and patio, Nin and Pole wanted views of the pool, the Silver Lake Reservoir, and the sunset. To capture these views, the living room and dining areas have long walls of windows and sliding glass doors.

In her sixth volume of Diary, Nin wrote about her life and home in Los Angeles, describing her Silver Lake home as “one large studio, no separate, small partitions.

“It had the sense of space of Japanese houses; it had the vista of a Japanese screen, all sky, mountains, lake, as if one lived out of doors,” Nin wrote. “Yet the roof, held by its heavy beams, gave a feeling of protection while the big windows which separated the roof from the studio framed the flight of birds, the sailing of clouds.”

Last summer Take Sunset wrote about the Dennis Hopper Compound in Venice. The incredibly massive property includes 5 separate parcels: a main house designed by Brian Murphy, AIA, and 3 two-story condominiums designed by the legendary architect Frank Gehry. It’s still on the market and has undergone a price drop from $6.245 to $5.8. And now a number of the late actor’s important pieces of art, memorabilia, furniture, and decorative objects are being offered at Christie’s in New York, Jan. 11 – 12.

A Warhol portrait of Mao punctured by two bullet holes, a script from the film Easy Rider with handwritten notes, and an inscribed portrait of Dennis Hopper by Helmut Newton are just some of the nearly 300 items Christie’s will offer. Other artists included in the sale are Marcel Duchamp, Gerhard Richter, Annie Leibovitz, Kenny Scharf, and Wallace Berman. Estimates range from $200 for movie posters of Hopper’s own films to $40,000 for a one-plate, signed, limited-edition silkscreen of Marilyn Monroe by Warhol.

Also up for sale, a Bubbles Chaise Longue by Frank Gehry, which is expected to go between $3,000 – $5,000. The total selection of items in the January sale is expected to achieve more than $1 million. A public preview of the collection opens Saturday, January 8 and runs through January 12.